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Beyond the white noise of Westminster, the devolved forcesin Wales and Scotland have been busyboosting gender equality in politics, through party policy for several years. Being Welsh, and a woman, I’m keen to find out ifbalancing representative politics is a matter for policyand whetherformal‘positive action’ has been effective.

POLICY

The National Assembly for Walesbecame thefirst legislative bodyto achieve equal numbers of male and female representatives– the first in the world– by 2003.

However only parties on the left seemed to bestutilise this, which hada substantial effectin Wales and Scotland becausethe left tends to dominate in those regions.

The effect did notsnowball in Westminster due tomore competition in constituencies from partieswithout all-women shortlists and Labour restricting its use totheir ‘safe seats’ only. It suggests that national party representatives saw positive actionas more of a risk than devolved party leaders.

The 2001 Actwas due to expire in 2015 but the Equality Act 2010 extended all-women shortlistsuntil 2030 – so it mayappearmorenationally yet.

Thirteen years on however,positive actionpolicy has been watered down within many of the devolved parties. Has this affected gender representation at the Senedd?

At the time of writing, 50% ofleaders ofthemainstream Welshpolitical partiesare female; showing a trust in women to deliver party policies within mainstreampolitics.

The 2016 Senedd election saw 25women elected as Assembly Members – just under half of seats, a backwards step. However,First Minister Carwyn Jones was rattled by theleader of Plaid Cymru, Leanne Wood, who stood against him and wonequalsupport from assembly members, creating an unexpected deadlock. Despite coming to an agreement that reinstated Jones, Wood’s tenacity goes from strength-to-strength as a high-profile political character.

Leanne Wood has been described as a force to reckoned with having single-handedly exposed excesses at the Wales Audit Office including a £750,000 payout for former CEO and was arrested in 2007 for protesting against Trident missile programme at a Scottish naval base

Wales isyet to appoint a female First Minister, but in Scotlandthis was achievedin2014. The SNP powerhouse and defender of all-women shortlists, Nicola Sturgeon, has nowleft a distinctive mark on Scottish and UK politics.

What’s the statusof gender balance across the board? In 2016, Scotland houses 60%female Members of Scottish Parliament. Wales:41%. In comparison, 29% of national representativesinthe House of Commonsare currently women.

This is standout proof that positive action achieves female attendance – the challenge isencouraging them to stand in elections.

HAVE ATTITUDES CHANGED?

When all-women shortlists were at their peak in the mid2000s, a small backlash saw protests on the grounds of fairness, damaging the credibility of the women elected.

Since winning their seats, several women elected under positive action felt they had to work much harder on their reputation than their male counterparts to prove their worth. They also found their private livesfocused on more intensely in the media.

Unfortunately we’ve seena much deeper-rootedmisogyny in Welshpolitics, particularly from the right, despite an increase in female representation.

In a shocking incident, a UKIP assembly member recently made disturbingcomments aboutLeanne Woodand Kirsty Williams during his maiden speech referring to the two party leaders as‘political concubines’ in Carwyn Jones’s‘harem’.

There are two layers of unsettlingsexismto the above comment: firstly, it displays an opinion that women, evenexperienced politicians,have no independentagency and rely onmale leadership. Secondly, the degrading languageassociates women with sex and submission – which would be shocking inany profession.

In conclusion, it’s probably too soon to tell how effective the Act has been, though I think the best indicators of its successhas been the support shown forfemale leaderswithin their parties and the public.

The results ofarecentITV opinion pollshowed popularity of leaders in the UK, where women shone over male leaders like David Cameron and Carwyn Jones.

Positive action puts womenon the ground butexpect a slight declinewhen the policy reduces in rigidity. However,exposure and results from all-women shortlistsshouldhelp to balance politicaldisparity on a deeper, more sustainable level and eventually the electorate willcome to trust female politicians on their own.

In the bigger picture,re-balancing our political culture through positive, progressive change, and not through fear,shoulddiscourage greatersocio-economic inequality, such as poverty and discrimination – and who wouldn’t be in favour of a mechanism that supports that?